On Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, I photographed the release of Zeus, the golden eagle, from Centre Wildlife Care (CWC). Here is the background of Zeus, as told by Robyn Graboski, director of CWC:

Zeus was found grounded on Thanksgiving Day. Thankfully, he did not have lead poisoning, but a terrible bacterial infection (based on lab work). With a little antibiotics, rest, and then flight conditioning, he recovered nicely. We believe that this is a he since he is a small golden eagle. However, golden eagles in general are larger than bald eagles and have a wing span up to 7.5 feet. We released Zeus on Skytop ridge today. A special thank-you goes out to Game Commission officer Chris Ivicic for catching Zeus and bringing him to CWC on Thanksgiving Day for care.

The first photo is of Zeus, two days after he was first brought to CWC.

Two months later he was a different eagle, so to say.

Officer Ivicic stood next to Robyn Graboski for the release.

Zeus took off at high speed . . .

. . . and gained distance rapidly.

It was a joy to see Zeus in full flight mode.

After flying some distance away, Zeus made a 180-degree turn and came back to give everyone at the release site a onceover, as if to say that he was going to remember us.

Zeus flew farther away and below the ridge.

Several minutes later, Zeus came back into view while he was soaring through the valley.

Golden eagles are not presently resident in the eastern United States; but many live in Canada and return south for the winter. There is the forever hope that once more golden eagles will return to live in the east.

On Facebook, on the CWC public pages (which anyone can view, whether or not having an account on FB), I put together two albums. The first album has 14 photos by me, and the second album has 13 photos by Rusty Glessner and CWC.

Photo note: The first one was taken by CWC; for the second I used a Pentax K20D, with the SMC-A f2/35mm, and for the remainder, a Pentax K3, with the SMC-DA* 60-250mm lens, taken on 25 January 2016.